Nimble Therapeutics will collaborate with Roche Diagnostics to accelerate the discovery of novel peptide-based molecules for the development of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro diagnostic assays, the company announced today.

SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19.

“We are extremely motivated to partner with Roche to tackle this global COVID-19 health crisis,” Nimble Therapeutics CEO Jigar Patel said in a statement. “This partnership expands our discovery capabilities, demonstrating the power and breadth of the Nimble platform in rapidly discovering novel compounds.”

According to a release, Nimble will extend its proprietary peptide synthesis, screening and optimization platform to enable faster discovery and optimization of promising compounds for detecting SARS-CoV-2.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.